The Pale Girl in a Dark World
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: "In this world, you have to lose something in order to move on." Or, in which Asriel relates an adventure he and Kris had after Asgore and Toriel split up. [Genderless!SemiMute!Kris][Twoshot][Complete]
1. To Lose is to Find

For as long as I could remember, Kris and I had been able to read each other's emotions pretty well. Which is good, I think, because I can't remember a time in my life where Kris wasn't a part of our family.

Our ability to read off each other was at its peak when we were younger; Mr. Holiday even used to call us Thing 1 and Thing 2. If one of us gave the other a side glance, it meant that the other had to do something. If one of us gave the other a nudge, it meant that they were the target of Mom's wrath. A tap on the nose? It meant steal the cookies, and quick, before Mom came back. For awhile, we were so good at it that a lot of people assumed that Kris wasn't able to talk. Everyone in Hometown found out that Kris could, after a very clever prank they conducted one afternoon during Vacation Bible School. No more Signing Time with Alex and Leah...

But when Mom and Dad separated, the light that was once in Kris's eyes started to dim. Everything about Kris seemed a lot duller. I had a hard time reading Kris- some times I still do, and I hate it. Mom always says that the separation wasn't our fault, but deep down, it always felt like it was. Maybe if we had behaved a little better so Mom and Dad didn't have to conflict over how to punish us, or maybe if we had helped them when they had needed it, maybe we would have all still been together.

Suffice to say, Kris wasn't the only one that changed.

It wasn't fair to Kris that Mom and Dad could no longer stand in the same room together, so I started to take them to the diner on Sundays for hot chocolate. We would stay there for hours- not wanting to be reminded that Dad would never come home or hear Mom say awful things about him. Sometimes we laughed and joked about the kids at school. Sometimes we cried. But even when it felt like our parents had abandoned us, we still had one thing; our adventures.

Mom taught the younger kids at our school, and since she was a teacher, she had a key to the school so she could get in whenever to set up the classroom. One day, Kris had managed to nab Mom's key and get a copy of it for us. It felt wrong, sure, but we soon had a place where we could play without anyone spying on us. The school had become a safe haven, even safer than the diner. I forget which one of us had found the abandoned classroom- but all I know was that it became our base of operations. If we wanted an adventure, that classroom was where we started.

The news of the separation still hung in our heads a whole month later. Mom could pretend that nothing was wrong, and Dad seemed to be fine. But me and Kris? It still felt like everything was wrong. We hid ourselves away in school, making our way to the abandoned classroom. Where else did we have to go?

"So, um..." I tried to start, if only to say something, "I started looking at colleges."

Kris looked over to me with a horrified expression.

"D-don't worry!" I then tried to tell them. "I don't want to go far, and I'll come back when I can. It's just… it's time, you know? For some change."

Kris still gave me that same fearful and betrayed look as they turned away. I was going to abandon them, they knew it, just like Mom and Dad had. I honestly wasn't trying to and if I had the power, Kris would have come with me.

When we approached the abandoned classroom's door, something felt… different about it. Kris was the one to try to open the door but hesitated.

"We don't have to visit today." I reminded them. "We can come back whenever."

Kris gave a small shake of their head. They had to visit today. _We_ had to visit. So, after a taking a deep breath in, Kris took a firm hold of the doorknob and opened the door.

It was very, very dark inside and only getting darker. Kris was the first to step inside, I followed closely behind. The door shut behind us after we were far enough in, but neither of us seemed to notice. In silence, we walked through the darkness. It might have been a few minutes, or maybe a year for all we cared, but eventually the darkness started to fade away. Our feet were now treading on a dirt road with large willow trees at the side, blocking any sunlight that could have been seen. But there wasn't a sun here. There was never a sun in this place- only darkness.

Kris was now wearing light armor consisting of a silver breastplate, boots, shoulder pads, and gloves laid over a dark under bodysuit. Over their shoulders and covering one of the shoulder pads was a small striped cape. I, on the other hand, was wearing heavy armor created from pure obsidian. The large shoulder pads, torso piece, and tasset were all one part of the upper armor. My boots reached a little over my knees, leaving only my lower thigh unarmored and showing a bit of my under bodysuit as well. When our armor appeared, we never questioned where we got them or if we had even bothered to change before hand; having our armor on meant that there was an adventure to be had, and we were going to find it.

We continued down the road and eventually a small figure started to appear on the horizon. As we came closer, I began to realize that it was a human. Despite the darkness, their skin was noticeably pale and their hair near platinum. When we were close enough, my heart nearly skipped a beat; it was a _girl_. The Pale Girl (who Kris said I couldn't name or I'd get attached) stood there waiting for us at the end of the road. Her face seemed a bit smug, but otherwise expressionless.

"Welcome travelers." she greeted with a half smile. "I see you made the journey well enough."

"The journey is always easy when you know the way." I coolly told her as Kris and I took a bow. Impressed, the Pale Girl gave a small bow of her own.

"Need I remind you," she then said, "In this world, you must lose something in order to move on. It can be something trivial, or even personal, but when you leave it will stay behind as tribute to your journey."

"I'm sure we'll manage." I teased in return. Kris gave a nod of agreement. If it wasn't important, then we wouldn't be here.

"Very well." she once more smirked. "Then you must find and slay the witch that ravishes this land. Only then will you be allowed to return home."

Kris folded their arms with some skepticism. It seemed easy- far too easy. They looked over at me with a raised eyebrow. They didn't trust her. Of course they didn't.

"It's our only way home." I reminded Kris. "We have to."

Still a bit annoyed, Kris put their arms down and gave a nod. If they had to…

"Excellent." the Pale Girl mused. "Follow me, for there will be many trials you must face before you can fight the witch."

Kris gave me another look that was pure 'are you joking?' to which I easily shrugged off and started to follow the Pale Girl. With a small, kinda annoyed sigh, Kris shook their head and followed as well.

* * *

**A/N: So, this was going to be a oneshot- but then I actually wrote out a timeline for the story and this one chapter is 1.3K without the author's note and after 2k words, reading gets tedious for me and I figure I don't want my readers suffering through it too, so maybe this fic will be a two-shot instead? Also, this is the first time I've written a first person in awhile, so here's hoping I don't screw that up ^^;**

**One more thing of note, Kris is wearing their Dark World outfit here. Asriel, on the other hand, is absolutely wearing Undertale!Undyne's armor- with a bit of adjustment, but it was what I mostly based my description on. This will remain the same in my other Deltarune fic, Two Planets, when we get to the Dark World in either chapter 6 or 7.  
**


	2. To Find is to Lose

Time only seemed to stand still in this odd world. There was no reference for night or day, only how long it took to walk from one point to another. Even then, that seemed dubious at best when you swore that you walked past the same tree five miles back- right down to the apparent claw marks on the side of its bark.

"Here we are at your first challenge." the Pale Girl announced to us as we approached a large wall. Made of stone and protected by magic, the wall was far too high for any of us to climb. Kris gave the wall a throughout look and walked a bit closer to it, gently moving their hand against the stone.

"What is it Kris?" I asked, moving closer to them.

Kris didn't look at me, but they pointed to a mural on the wall. The mural held three separate images that told a bit of a story: the first image depicted a small girl, she looked sad and lonely. In the second image, she came upon an older looking monster and seemed to be bargaining with it. In the last image, the girl had apparently gained magic powers -her hands emitting a dark glow- as a raincloud hung over the girl's head, depicting her sadness and power.

Below the mural was a message: 'When someone wishes to find something, they must first lose their heart. In order to pass, you too must lose your heart.'

Kris raised an eyebrow at the riddle. It took them a few moments, but in realizing the solution, Kris put a hand to their chest.

"Kris?" I wondered. "Are you alright?"

They didn't respond for awhile and only pressed their hand further into their chest. Then, in a motion almost too quick for me to notice, they reached into their armor and pulled out a locket. When I saw it, my heart fell.

"The locket Dad gave us..."

Kris gave a small nod while looking at the locket. The locket was made out of solid gold and formed in the shape of a heart- I have one just like it. Inside was a small picture of us, shortly after Kris had joined our family. On the outside, the words 'Don't Forget' had been etched on. The full phrase was supposed to be 'Don't Forget Where Your Heart Lies' but there hadn't been enough room. Dad had given them to us that Christmas, and Kris and I vowed never to part with them. But then again, Mom and Dad used to promise that they wouldn't part either…

"Are you sure?" I asked Kris before putting a hand on their shoulder.

Sure enough, Kris hesitated; their fingers wrapping around the locket tight. But they rolled my hand off their shoulder regardless, and placed the locket into the mural itself- placed in the last picture where the girl's heart would have been. With the introduction of the locket, the wall started to glow and faded away.

"Good work." the Pale Girl said. "Let's continue, shall we?"

Kris gave me a funny looking look of mild disgust as we went on. We followed the Pale Girl further down the road- the sky slowly growing lighter as we continued, almost as if there were hope despite the overall darkness. She only made us stop walking when we came to a cave. Just like the wall before, the top of the cave entrance held a message for us; 'Those who take a sword will die from it.'

"Here we are." the Pale Girl instructed us. "The witch is in that cave- go and defeat her."

"We'll be out in no time." I assured her.

The Pale Girl gave an amused snort. "I have no doubt about that." she agreed. "Good luck."

Good thing she wasn't actually there when we fought the witch. The witch in question did not seem human or monster, but nasty all the same. Using my obsidian sword, I was able to make brute, close range attacks while Kris used their bow and arrows to distract the witch. We have had enough adventures to know how to work together well enough- this just seemed to be the day where we all ended up rather unlucky.

The witch seemed invulnerable to close attacks, and the arrows Kris were using were made of the same element the witch was. Any attacks we made caused so little damage that it was practically a joke. At some point we decided to fall back and think something else out.

"Our attacks aren't working," I told Kris, despite it being rather obvious by now. "We need to act instead. But how?"

Kris bowed their head as they tried to think of something. After a few moments of brainstorming, they popped their head back up and pointed to my sword. Confused, I looked at them as if they were nuts. But then it hit me.

"Those who take a sword will die from it..." I mumbled as I finally realized what the runes on the cave had meant. "I have to give her my sword in order to defeat her."

Kris nodded. I gave them a wide, bright smile. Giving them a pat on the head, I told them happily, "You're a genius Kris!"

Have I ever mention how much I enjoy Kris's smile? Their real, genuine smile? I smile just thinking about it; it's that infectious.

Recomposing myself, I turned my attention back to the witch.

"Hey ugly!" I shouted at her. "Catch!"

The witch paid enough attention to see as I hurled the sword right at her face. She took a firm hold of it with her left hand, and for a moment, she paused. Slowly, she brought up her other hand to keep hold of the sword hilt. The sword's tip was only inches away from where her heart lied, and with one thrust, it was pushed through her body as if it were wet tissue paper. The witch then convulsed as her body cracked in several places- when she exploded into small bits of darkness, my sword went with her.

"I liked that sword..." I whined for a moment. And I had; made it myself far too long ago. Kris brought me back around, placing a hand on my elbow. I looked over at them and smile.

"Right," I agreed, "We have to go tell her."

And together we left the cave to greet the Pale Girl. She must have known that we had slayed the witch, because there was just… something different about her- like a curse had been lifted. The sky too seemed far perkier than ever before; it was like the sun had finally peeked through on an overcast day.

Kris knew what had happened right away.

"M-me?" the Pale Girl stuttered. "How am I the real witch?"

Kris glared at her. They indicated that she had given them clues throughout the journey; the riddle where they had to give up their locket, it had depicted the story of how she gained her powers. And the 'witch' that we had just fought? That was the one who had tormented her- essentially, Kris had pointed out that we had just done the Pale Girl's dirty work. It must have been true, because the Pale Girl stood straighter.

"You know nothing of the situation." she hissed at us. "I did not seek to do harm, I only wanted to learn. But instead I lost everything."

"Your name," I carefully said, "You lost you name, not everything. And… it's Ausra, isn't it?"

Hearing the name, the Pale Girl looked up at me in shock.

"How…? I never told you..."

"You lost your name, didn't you?" I then asked as walked closer to her. "So you could have magical powers like monsters do."

"Some." she corrected. "Some monsters do. But this isn't the time to discussing that."

The Pale Girl straightened herself up a bit more before saying to both of us, "What is done is done, and you have finished what I requested of you. The path home is opened for you two heroes. Thank you, and good luck."

"What about you?" I asked. "We can't just leave you here alone."

The expression she gave me was a somber, yet sad one. "I'll be here." she promised. "When you think that you're alone, just know that I'll be right there beside you, even if you can't see me."

One part of me knew that she was right, the other wanted to refuse and insist that she come with us. But Kris was ready to go home, so I gave her small nod and just left her there. The door back home was right there, so Kris and I went through. Before I closed the door, I took one last look at the Pale Girl.

Don't forget…

Kris and I returned to the school without any other fuss. I turned to look at them, and they looked at me. The look they gave me illustrated that they did not want to go home yet. Giving a small sigh, I put a hand on their shoulder.

"Let's get some hot chocolate." I offered. Kris gave a nod, that would do for now. Anything to avoid the inevitable.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter is a LOT longer than the first, but that's good because I wasn't going to make it go on for a third chapter- it was only supposed to be a oneshot! Well, it could have been if I had waited, but where's the fun in that?**


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